Learn German: Ich wurde nervös, denn ich habe das Problem erkannt. - I became nervous because I realized the problem.

wurde is the simple past tense of werden (to become). Even in casual conversations where Germans normally use the spoken past (Perfekt), they usually prefer the short simple past forms for highly common verbs like sein (to be), haben (to have), and werden.

How do I know if wurde means "was" or "became"?

As a standalone verb, werden means "to become" or "to get", so Ich wurde nervös means "I became nervous" or "I got nervous". The word for "was" is war (the simple past of sein).

Why doesn't the verb go to the end after denn?

Both denn and weil mean "because", but they affect word order differently. denn keeps the normal word order, so the verb habe stays right after the subject ich. If the sentence used weil, the conjugated verb would jump to the end: ... weil ich das Problem erkannt habe.

Why does the past participle erkannt lack the usual ge- at the beginning?